This, too, will pass

This is the message of PIBJ last Friday. To the readers who may not be following Preachers in Blue Jeans and might happen to read this blog, let me retell the short story Bo Sanchez shared.

A king instructed his Prime Minister to give him a special ring on his birthday. A kind of ring that whoever is sad, when he look at the ring ,he would be happy and whoever is happy, he would be sad. And so the Prime Ministers started to find this kind of ring. Days before the King’s birthday, he met an old wise jeweler and asked him about this kind of ring. He told him he needs that kind of ring on the Kings birthday. And so the old man took a ring and started carving on it. When it was finished he gave it to the Prime Minister and when he looked at the ring and read what was carved on it, he smiled.

The King’s birthday came and the King expected the Prime Minister to tell him there were no such ring. The King just order him to find such kind of ring in order to trick the Prime Minister. He knew there is no such kind of ring. But to his big surprise, the Prime Minister was able to find one and gave it to him. When the king held the ring and read what was carved on it, he became very sad.

The words that was carved on the ring was: THIS, TOO, WILL PASS.

Yes, anything that we have now will pass. The reasons for our happiness, the wealth that we have will pass, and so with the big problems that we have.

I can’t help thinking about the recent shocking news this past week. The bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers. A very stable company, (well, until last week) that is more than a century old. Nobody really expected this thing to happen. Honestly, I felt a little bit scared.( No, I have no investment in them or its affiliates. I am not yet blessed as to be able to invest with them. But, who knows??!!) Everybody knows our country’s economy will be affected with this US economic turmoil. But I know, this, too, will pass!

I believe this has become an eye opener to everyone that everything in this world are temporary.

Once again it has also proven that anything that is not founded by God, won’t really last.

The only thing that will remain is GOD.

Thus, the happiness and joy that we feel should be rooted in God because this will not surely pass.

Power Ranger

Ersyl Jay, my nephew, was two and a half years old when this incident happened. He so much love the Power Rangers. He would always make an improvised cape out of a blanket or a towel and ran around the house shouting “Power Ranger!” He knows when it is shown on tv and would patiently look forward to it every time.

It was one Sunday morning. After the mass, I told my sister we will drop by the Perpetual Euchristic Adoration (PEA) before going home. She told her son about it and added that he pray for his Ate to get well from flu. Ersyl just said, “Sige, mangayo ko damu-damu nga power!” (Ok, I will ask lots and lots of power!) True enough, to everyone’s surprise inside the PEA, he loudly said his prayers for the healing of his Ate and for the powers that he wants.

Smart kid indeed. Being one of the Power Rangers, who already has powers, he is aware that he still needs more, and he just knew exactly whom to ask!

I wonder if we always act like him also? Maybe sometimes. We think we are good enough to handle our problems. We think that we are mature enough to decide, that we have all the means to provide for our needs and others. But then we only discover that all we have is nothing but pride. We are so proud enough that we forget we are making a God of ourselves. We forgot that we are just human beings and has lots of limitation. That we can not control all the situations around us, like the people, weather, time and etc. Eventually we become impatient. We blame ourselves for making mistakes and wrong decisions. We tend to look down on ourselves. We think it is the end and we become hopeless. We become too engrossed with solving our own problems that we forget that there is someone else who could help us and make things better if not solve the problem for us.

We forget where to ask more power, or we even don’t think we need some more. We become self sufficient and refuse to think we need others help. We think we are good enough to handle our problems. We failed to see that some problems really have no solutions. Some problems are not for us to solve but we have made it on our own to solve them. We fail to see that problems or conflicts just exist for a purpose. However equipped and powerful we think we may be, we are still powerless in God’s eyes. Whatever successes we have, He had the greatest contribution in it. It is not all ours.

We are created with an innate longing for God. But oftentimes because of our own pride we refuse to acknowledge this cry in our hearts. We so much depend on ourselves that we forget about our Creator. We forget to see that the only thing that we need to do when all things fail is to…

LET GO AND LET GOD!

Keyboard

Exactly a month later. I finally got back my laptop yesterday. I was happy because I missed it. With its coming back, I am learning not just a few lessons. My major learning is that of letting go.

Literally, it has become really brand new again. Yes, without my personal files! The hard drive was diffective and they had to reformat it. I refused to think or recall what I have stored on it before because I am afraid I might lose my heart. (Joke!) In a way, I have prepared myself for this kind of worst thing that might happen before I surrendered it to the supplier for fixing. But I was also desperately praying that my files will be spared. I realized I only made myself ready to let go of my laptop and not my files.

I remember I had made it a habit that before I buy a certain thing, especially the expensive ones, I would ask myself, “Bea, are you willing to let go of it?” When my answer is no, then for me, I am not yet ready to purchase it. This I did when I bought my keyboard. Playing a piano or an organ was my childhood dream. I even swore that if it would only on my old age that I could afford to buy a piano or an organ, I will still try to have and learn how to play it. I didn’t really expect it to be affordable this early in my life. After making sure I could let go of it, I bought my much awaited keyboard. As much as possible I want to buy appliances that I can use for God’s ministry. I believe all these things on earth are just lent to us by God and I don’t want to leave my heart on earth when I die. I want to store wealth in heaven.

True enough, after two years, a friend of mine broke my keyboard out of anger. He stamped his feet on it. He even bathed it with soda. Just imagine how it looked like. I felt sad and found myself asking “am I willing to let it go?” In my heart I felt peace with the thought that I did not take it for granted and taken so much care of it. And most of all, have used it for God’s glory for its entire life. We were using it in our weekly prayer meetings. I also used it on a morning daily mass in the Cathedral with a friend playing a flute. I lent it to a youth who, like me, was also eager to learn but have no keyboard.

Miraculously, after twelve years it is still working. I still used it in some seminars that we have. Guess I really had a nice investment on it.

To whom much is given, much is required or expected. I realized I have to really use the gifts God has given me. Having this computer comes responsibility. God knows my hearts desires and I believe it is why He has answered my prayer when I asked for it. But I became lazy. (It started when I was snatched of my cellphone.) I became uninterested in writing. Though I have a lot of reflections in my mind. Didn’t I dream of writing a book? A compilation of my reflections? My spiritual journey with my lover? I remember Tita Rose. She said she has compiled 80 reflections she got from the internet, mostly forwarded messages from me, and had bookbinded it. One of them was my personal reflections which I have shared with her. It was so nice of her. She shares it to her community members and found it useful for some of their teachings.

While my laptop was away, there was a time that the reading for the day was about the fig tree. While on their way somewhere, Jesus was hungry and found a fig tree. He put it to death after knowing that it has no fruit on it. I believe Jesus knew that it wasn’t it’s time to bear fruit. I thought maybe God took my laptop away because it didn’t bear fruit in my care. My laptop is not like the fig tree that bears fruit in season.

My keyboard has a lot to show me now. I am learning from it. It has gone through a lot of tough jobs. All for God's ministry. And to this day, it has survived. Because it was used and not kept. It has done great things for people that has used it. It has served it’s purpose. It has bore so much fruit.

God’s answers are wiser than our prayers. Yes, indeed. Now I have to start anew without any heartache. I have to start writing new reflections but now with more passion. I’m afraid I might not be able to recall the many reflections I have already written. Thanks to some which I sent to my cyberfriends. I have copies in my emails that I can keep back. As I was using my laptop, I noticed that this has become better than before. It has more enhanced programs that I can use for my small business. Now I think God took my laptop away for a while so it could bear more fruit when he would hand it back to me. I’d like to think that God let this happen now since it is still under warranty so I need not worry about the expenses.

The only permanent thing in the world is ‘CHANGE’. Hence, letting go is what God always teach me. That no matter how many times I might be letting go, I should trust Him that things will always be alright because He wills it.

(I wrote this last June 2007. Now I decided to post it here... and many others in the future.)